How Mumford & Sons brother tackled thug in street assault

Brother of Marcus Mumford, the Mumford & Sons singer, leaps on thug who
assaulted woman in London street.

James Mumford

By Richard Eden

7:28AM BST 22 Sep 2013

With his church-going background and wholesome songs, Marcus Mumford is seen as one of pop music’s most mild-mannered stars. His brother, James, has, however, just demonstrated a muscular approach to his Christian faith.

James, 28, saw a woman being assaulted by a stocky man with a shaved head in a street near his house in Shepherd’s Bush, west London. He refused to walk on by.

“He was pushing her around, right in front of me, in broad daylight,” says James, whose sister-in-law is the Hollywood star Carey Mulligan. “She was shrieking, he shouting in a language I couldn’t identify.”

Mumford, who has a PhD from Oxford University, intervened. “The man’s aggression escalating, I decided there was nothing for it," he writes in the October edition of Standpoint magazine. "I tried to squeeze in between them to separate the pair.”

The man then “transferred his fury” to Mumford. “With one hand he grabbed my collar, while the other he seemed to be winding up for a punch.”

The attacker then fled. Mumford, who was a senior researcher with the independent Westminster think tank the Centre for Social Justice, spotted a policeman who joined him in giving chase.

They eventually caught up with the man, who aimed a punch at the police officer. Mumford jumped on the man’s back and tackled him to the ground, where he was held until more police arrived and he was arrested.

Mumford, whose parents are leaders of the Vineyard evangelical church, says he was shocked to be told by the police that the attacker had been later released because they had failed to charge him within 24 hours. “Don’t worry yourself, sir,” a policeman told him. “I promise you, when he turns up, we’ll be ready.”

Since the incident, Mumford has moved to America, where has taken up a two-year post as a research fellow at the University of Virginia, which he describes as a “dream job”.